Have an interest in the well-being of older adults, a passion for elder advocacy, or just considering a career with more job security? As more and more baby boomers reach retirement age, the United States is experiencing a shortage of people trained to meet the unique needs of older adults. There are a number of career paths an individual can take if they want to work with or for older Americans. There’s medicine, teaching, public policy, non-profit work, and research just to name a few.

I’m a member of the Gamma Upsilon chapter of Sigma Phi Omega national gerontology honor society at the UMass Boston. Our officers are hosting a local event during “Careers in Aging Week” on April 8, 2013 that will feature a career panel and luncheon for interested students, adult learners, faculty, career counselors, and the general public.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Burr, chair of my gerontology department,“This Careers in Aging Week event will provide important information about the wide range of professions in the field of aging and aging research, raise awareness about older populations and their needs, and inform students and the public of the many academic programs available to get one started on a career path.”

As someone who has been in an aging field for years, I am hoping not only to learn about job opportunities but to network with local professionals at the event. “Gamma Upsilon’s chapter of Sigma Phi Omega national academic honor society at University of Massachusetts Boston is proud to bring Careers in Aging Week to the Boston community,” said Kristen Porter, a PhD student in gerontology and president of the chapter. “We will be joining our colleagues across the country who are hosting similar events. Our April 8 event includes a lunch reception with gerontology faculty and students along with a career panel comprised of four esteemed professionals working in distinct aspects of the aging field.”

Panelists include Jane Saczynski, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine at UMass Medical School; Suzanne Leveille, PhD, RN, Director of PhD Program in Nursing at UMass Boston; Andrea Cohen, CEO at HouseWorks; and Emily Shea, Commissioner of the Commission on Affairs of the Elderly. Porter notes, “Panelists will share their own education and career trajectories as well as offer their advice to students considering a career in the aging field.”

The event is free and will take place at the University of Massachusetts Boston in McCormack Hall’s Ryan Lounge beginning at 12:30 p.m. If you are in the Boston area this is a great opportunity to learn and network, hope I see you there!

The Boston College Center for Retirement Research always has wonderful posts on their blog. It’s great for someone like me, who’s working on a dissertation that focuses on retirement. I can get a quick synopsis of the current research coming out of the CRR. They always make their information useful for the general public too, and I want to share with you a recent post that highlighted a new tool for people planning for retirement. How do you know if you’re doing enough? Ask the calculator!

You can play around with the calculator here. I really liked the tool, and found it easy to use and visually appealing. I liked how the graphics instantly updated based on my changes. The calculator also took into account important information like what age I plan on retiring and what I expect to get from Social Security or my employer pension. The calculation gave me a good estimate of my monthly income in retirement because all my resources were accounted for. It also told me I’m not doing enough if I want to maintain my standard of living in retirement!

The best part was Step 3: Make a Plan. Unlike many of the other retirement income estimators I’ve seen online (which are often on the website of an investment company) this calculator helped me reach my retirement goals and come out with a plan for free! Nothing to sign up for or invest in. The site offered simple steps to increase my retirement income like asking me to consider spending less each month or retiring at 65 instead of 62. And the tool showed me exactly what will happen to my income if I take one or both of these steps. I came up with a plan that suited me and the site offered to help me develop an action plan for moving forward.

The Gerontology Institute at my university has been collaborating with Wider Opportunities for Women on the Elder Economic Security Standard Index (EESSI) for quite some time. I was a part of this project during my assistantship back in 2011. The project focuses on each state in the nation, breaking it down to the county level, to determine how much elders actually need to maintain their independence and meet their costs of daily living. It was very important to bring this kind of assessment down to the state and county level, which is not how the poverty threshold used by our government works. For one thing, the costs of housing, child care, health care, and transportation vary greatly based on where you live.

Though the EESSI measured poverty on these levels, it came to a startling conclusion about the nation as a whole. Even though costs vary based on where you live, in every state and every county the poverty threshold for an individual ($10,890/yr) or the average Social Security benefit ($14,105/yr) is NOT enough to maintain independence, and these elders needed housing and health care supports to cover their basic expenses.

The purpose of this tool is to have “a measure of income adequacy that respects the autonomy goals of older adults, rather than a measure of what we all struggle to avoid – poverty.” Some of the Gerontology Institute’s other findings include: (1) Housing costs are the greatest expense for most elder households, and elders can spend up to half of their income on housing. (2) A major life change, such as the death of a spouse or a major health shock, can create a situation where someone who was once meeting their expenses can no longer do so.

The Summer 2012 issue of the American Society on Aging’s journal “Generations” got me excited. Why you ask? For the first time we have a document summarizing the current knowledge of elder financial capacity and competency in America. Experts from economic, clinical, legal, and public policy research write up informative articles about this growing problem. One of the most important articles, I think, was written by Kristen L. Triebel and Daniel C. Marson titled “The Warning Signs of Diminished Financial Capacity in Older Adults.”

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment or those with early stage Alzheimer’s are particularly at risk for declining financial capacity and competency. They are the focus of this article. These individuals are likely to develop issues with the following financial skills perhaps even before they are diagnosed.

The Warning Signs

Memory lapses – forgetting to pay bills, paying them late, or paying the same bill repeatedly

Disorganization – misplacing financial documents, missing deadlines like when taxes are due

Declines in checkbook management – changes in one’s ability to use a checkbook, for example incorrectly filling out checks, writing the wrong payee or payment amount, or calculating the wrong balance after a transaction

Arithmetic errors – difficulty with making change to pay at the store or figuring out the tip in a restaurant

Conceptual confusion – declines or confusion in general knowledge about concepts like your will, annuity, or mortgage

Impaired judgement – judgement about the use of money or how to invest declines

The authors point out that considering an individual’s baseline (or normal financial ability and functioning) is the first step. Then look for any of the previously mentioned warning signs. Often the first financial skills to decline are the ability to manage a checkbook and the ability to do mathematical computations. The authors suggest action once warning signs are detected, and encourage family members to discuss any concerns with the older adult. It is important to respect the elder’s autonomy so they suggest the following:

simplifying and setting financial routines

consolidating accounts so the financial caretaker can keep track of the flow of funds

putting the proper legal documents in place

taking advantage of new bank technology (direct deposit, automatic bill pay, over-draft protection, and online banking) to help monitor and maintain the accounts

Financial exploitation is an increasing concern in the United States. Often these victims had decreases in their financial capacity but perhaps did not notice or did not acknowledge the decline. As the elder law attorney William Brisk mentions in a later article, “Being old does not make one incompetent, but aging is often accompanied by declining memory and other cognitive deficits, which can lead to poor judgement and even irrational behavior. The classic view of competence is that you either have it or you don’t. Like a light switch, it’s either on or off.” In reality, it is not that black and white.

A brief history of Social Security benefit claiming goes like this: In the beginning, benefits were available only at age 65. In 1956, reduced benefits were made available to women as early as age 62. In 1961, this treatment extended to men. Over time the age people claimed benefits steadily decreased and the average age for retirement stuck at 62 years old. In 1983, when facing an imminent shortage of funds, the age for full benefits increased from 65 to 67. While this reform did not change the earliest age you could claim Social Security, it reduced benefits further for early claimers. Currently, claiming benefits at age 62 instead of age 67 results in 25 percent less in every monthly check. So, $938 per month rather than $1,250 per month. Get it? Good!

In the past decade, the age of claiming Social Security benefits steadily increased as people began to comprehend how much money they lose by retiring early. That is, until the recent economic recession. A brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College shows a large increase in early benefit claims from 2007 to 2009. More than 5 percent of the eligible population were enticed to claim Social Security at age 62, which was not part of their plan before the crisis. These individuals will now receive a reduced benefit for the rest of their lives.

Simulations by the authors suggest that compared to experiencing no recession, people claimed benefits about 10 months earlier than they planned, which reduced their monthly benefit by 8 percent. This many not seem like much now but every little bit helps when living on a fixed income. Ask an 82-year-old and she may tell you her Social Security check was plenty of income 20 years ago. Now she finds herself struggling to stay out of poverty.

Every non-profit or academic institution focused on aging in America (e.g. AARP, Older Women’s League, American Society on Aging, etc.) supports the American Care Act. It’s great news that the Supreme Court ruled the law was constitutional. With this ruling, insurance companies will no longer be able to deny coverage, or charge more because of a pre-existing condition, or force women to pay higher premiums than men. Preventive care will continue to be covered at no cost, and seniors will continue to save money on prescription drugs (5.3 million Medicare Part D beneficiaries have already saved $3.7 billion on prescriptions since the law was enacted).

The ACA is a major step toward ensuring affordable and quality health coverage for millions of working families, elders, and children. Therefore, it is surprising to me that many Americans don’t believe the ACA will help them. A Kaiser Family Foundation report found that people believe young adults and children are likely to benefit from the new law, but not themselves or their families. Thirty-seven percent of respondents felt the law will make no difference in their lives, thirty-one percent felt they will be worse off.

Where are these answers coming from? Is it that a case being brought to the Supreme Court is enough to reduced people’s opinions of the law? Who are the individuals against the ACA…do they understand the implications for American’s health system and the American people’s well-being?

The ACA is in no way perfect, but many of the laws are designed specifically to help older people acquire and pay for comprehensive health care. An AARP article lists the number of ways the law supports older adults:

As mentioned, people with Medicare Part D now receive discounts on prescription drugs while in the doughnut hole. The Part D discounts will gradually increase until 2020, when the doughnut hole will close

In 2014, insurers can no longer deny coverage if you have a preexisting condition

In 2014, insurance “exchanges” will provide better access and options to self-employed people, small businesses and others who are unable to find affordable coverage

The Supreme Court’s decision is a significant move in the right direction. It will help the United States build a health care plan for our future that is on par with what other developed nations provide already: Affordable health care coverage as a right, not a privilege.

A recent post by the CRR shows that non-working Baby Boomers age 55 to 61 (ages ineligible for Social Security benefits) are wealthier now than non-working 55 to 61 year olds of the past. The post explores how they’ve accumulated the wealth and why they chose to leave the labor force. An important point of the article is that, though they find themselves wealthier than non-workers of the past, they still only have a median wealth figure of $98,000. This “isn’t a lot of money for a boomer with a long spell of retirement ahead of them. Boomers who leave the labor force often put themselves at risk of depleting their 401(k) assets too soon.”

Post Introduction: “Baby boomers who’ve left the labor force in their pre-retirement years are in better financial shape than they once were.

The wealth of non-working Americans between ages 55 and 61 increased from $83,000 in 1992 to $98,000 in 2008, according to new research from the Urban Institute in Washington. (Comparisons are in constant dollars.)

Potential explanations for this trend range from greater U.S. inequality that launched more boomers into the top wealth tier to a rise in the numbers of married men who don’t work – but have wives who do. Barbara Butrica, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute, said her study did not look into the “why” for the emerging group of voluntary non-workers who are approaching traditional retirement ages, married and single men in particular. One possibility, she said, is that “they are leaving the labor force because they can afford to.”

During my study of retirement income security something has always bugged me. Countless articles and reports suggest smart asset allocations are the tried and true way to have a successful retirement (and still say this even after the economic recession). They talk about the value of investing and give financial advice that is clearly geared toward those with ample resources. Advice for the little guys is rarely provided, though arguably they need it more. Most people try to save for retirement but end up with little financial wealth. They’ll probably spend at least some of their retirement struggling financially.

A recent article by the Center for Retirement Research explores ways individuals can leverage their savings and assets so they are more likely to have a secure retirement. They suggest financial planning should not only include building retirement portfolios but:

Delaying retirement and taking more time to contribute to retirement accounts

Controlling spending and using the money saved to increase your savings

Investing assets in ‘riskless equities’ after retirement

Taking out a reverse mortgage

In other words, when all your financial adviser tells you is which stocks and bonds to put your money into, they are missing the big picture. There is an array of tools that people should explore and, based on their situation, employ to help them build a secure retirement. In fact, asset allocation was found to have the smallest effect on retirement security. The paper found working six months longer produces the same outcome as moving all investments into ‘riskless equities.’

However, I’d like to bring it back to my original point: do we provide advice to those who need it most? Recently, I gave a talk on women’s retirement security to a local Council on Aging community event. Community members had wonderful questions after the talk. One question struck me most: “I didn’t know about saving when I was young, my husband did that. But we spent most of it on his illness and now he’s gone. I have nothing but my Social Security check, do you have any financial advice for me?” Later we had a chat and I asked her some questions about her situation. I found that she had been a homemaker, she did not own her home, and she was physically incapable of working. Her monthly check was also ‘too much’ for her to qualify for government services and benefits. What advice do we have for people like her?

Researchers and financial experts are starting to explore ways low- and middle-income workers can make the most out of their savings and assets. But still, there are people currently in retirement who live on little income, own next to nothing, and would love some advice. This is particularly true of older women. Many never needed to care about their finances until their husband passed away. If anyone knows an organization or service that advises these people (for free!) please educate me…because I don’t know of one.

The Older Women’s League has come out with their 2012 Mother’s Day report. Their reports are always thorough, up-to-date, and readable. This year the topic is on women in the U.S. workforce and highlights what women are faced with as they grow older. As OWL’s president mentions in her message to readers, this is a timely report since mid-life and older women are the fastest growing segment of our workforce and the economic downturn presents new challenges in their ability to find work, keep their jobs, and build their retirement wealth.

From the OWL National Website: “This year’s report looks at how factors such as unemployment and underemployment, pay inequality, caregiving, age and gender discrimination, and education, training, and technology are impacting women age 40 and older. The report highlights existing programs that produce real results and offer innovative solutions and policy-driven recommendations to expand economic diversity and accelerate our nation’s productivity.”

Last week I was asked to present high school students with information on women in the workforce and saving for retirement. One of my major goals was to instill the value of starting early. But I had the sense, maybe because I’m not too far from high school age myself, that my slides about compound interest and Roth IRAs would be particularly boring.

Rather than watch their eyes glaze over I added a new slide: A personal story about my mother, her life course, marital history and saving behavior. I wasn’t saying anything novel but by explaining compound interest this way I kept everyone’s attention. So, I encourage you to share this with the young people in your life and reflect on what it really means to save early and save often.

(For simplicity, the interest rate at all time points is 5%. In actuality, she gained more during her earlier life and has lost a lot during the recent recession).

This figure tells us two stories. Let’s begin with the story in blue, which is what really happened. At age 21, my mom got married and started working a new job. She was so excited to finally have her own money and be able to buy all the clothes she wanted and decorate their new house. My dad, however, didn’t think this was a good plan and told her, “Save your money! We both should be saving now for our future.” Reluctantly she saved, putting $2,000 away each year for her retirement. By the time her first child was born (me!) she had saved up $20,000.

In her 30’s she had another baby and raised my sister and me. She was not working or saving at this time but her $20,000 continued to grow. By 42 her marriage was on the rocks and she became divorced. Now, all that planning for her future had to be done alone. She spent a couple years searching for a new job and struggling with the change. Even so, the savings from her 20’s continued to grow. By 45 she found a new job and started her career over. She was getting nervous about her retirement savings and started putting away $5,000 a year. The savings from her new job were added the nice nest egg she had accumulated while she wasn’t working. The final blue bar shows an optimistic future where she continues to save each year, the economy improves and hopefully she reaches over $300,000 by retirement.

What is the reality of saving? Well, you can’t always save when you want to or need to and it’s hard to predict the future. For example, my mom couldn’t predict that we’d be in an economic recession right at the time most people her age start saving for retirement. The green bars show us what this path would look like for her. Nothing in her life has changed except that she didn’t save in her 20’s. Instead she chose to ignore my dad’s suggestion and spend her money on clothes, new furniture and all the other things she wanted. The message is clear: Saving early, even if it’s just a little, makes a huge difference for your future.

I can tell you honestly that most of my mom’s friends are extremely worried about their futures. They are in their 50’s, starting to save now and having a difficult time. She knows, though she hates to admit it, my dad was right.